First, I am not doubting you. What made this different is that the exit hole and entrance hole into the second jug were just that, holes. Not the stretch tear that I have seen with GD's. I understand that most JHP expand in the first 3". However, I do not follow your analogy. When I shoot a 45 through paper I get at 45 hole and when I shoot a .223 I get a .224 hole. Even went back to saved targets of both calibers and measured. Also, following your thinking why would the entrance hole on the first jug be a perfect round hole and not a stretch tear. The reason I brought it up is because it was different than other bullets. Whether it was a velocity induced stretch tear I do not know, but it was the only bullet that tore a chunk out of the jugs that was larger than the exit hole on the second jug and the entrance and exit on the third.

When I shoot paper with a .45 FMJ, I get a hole roughly .25" across. By hole, I mean area with no paper. Not counting "tears". The FMJ .223 is much closer to .224.

The higher the velocity, the more area is going to be removed from the target with regards to paper/milk-jugs.

Lets try this. Take a pen and shove it through a piece of paper. Pull it back out. Lay the paper flat on something and approximate the edges of the hole. How much table-top do you see through where the pen passed?

Now take a .45ACP and shoot a piece of paper. Repeat the experiment.

I wager there is much more table showing through the .45ACP hole than the pen hole.

I would really like to see some gel testing of 357SIG HST's. I looked for it after reading this post, but couldn't find any.

I am basing the information I have off of high-speed video of stuff like XTP's etc. hitting gel and expanding fully within an inch or less.

Construction also plays a role (compare the hole in a piece of paper from a wad-cutter vs. round-nose). Gold-Dots usually have a much "smoother" frontal area (especially around the edges) than does the HST round. On something like a milk-jug, that matters immensely. I could count talon-cuts on RA45T that I should through milk-jugs. Now THOSE! were nasty. 1" across.

ETA: Just now read this. See above, lol:

Quote:

Originally Posted by PghJim

I no longer have the slugs for pictures. The HST exhibited more energy throught the first two jugs. The GD folded in on itself to a smaller, rounder mushroom than the HST. Besides expanding more, the HST had a jagged edged around the circumference of the mushroom. I do not know if this sounds right, but the HST seemed to be designed for its velocity, or to perform exactly the same at a veloctiy range. I have found GD performance in the 357 sig bullet to be velocity dependent. Also as mentioned in my post below, the HST actually tore a large hole (read plastic missing) on the exit of the first jug and not the stretch tear I have seen with GD's

The Gold Dot and HST are two completely different designs. The HST was designed for maximum expansion. The Gold Dot was designed to penetrate more. The HST will obviously do more damage to watermellons/milk-jugs/rabbits as it is (roughly) going the same speed, yet has a larger diameter (shortly after hitting the target). It will be more "explosive", as you have noted.